Bluebird & Other Scale Models

[ExcelsiorUK]

Ah, I can see the images now I've logged in to post! Hadn't hit "remember me". Anyway. A year or so ago I found out about an official Lego site where you can post set ideas up, the idea being for people to vote for them with a view to their becoming manufactured Lego sets. This is in no way guaranteed however as even if you get 10,000 supporters it's still down to Lego to pick which they'll make.

Now, thus far my projects haven't done brilliantly because they are, I freely admit, based on a very obscure science fiction show. So I was considering what else I could put forward in light of all the NASA sets seeing approval. I honestly can't remember how Bluebird came to mind, except that part of my wedding day was spent on Coniston and I spent holidays in the Lakes growing up. So it may be that as I was casting around for inspiration I just had that light bulb moment, when the synapses fired in the right order.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. A great British project, with a great British hero. There's only been one very brief mention of Bluebird on the site some years back, and that was in amongst other speed record examples. What I'm considering doing is a set whereby a Lego figure could fit in it, so it would be a reasonable size. Right now this is all just in my head and before I start more detailed planning this seemed to be a sensible place to sound something out.

Given your experiences to date, do you think the family would object to this as a concept, or might they support it? It might be a complete flop, but at least the official site would retain the project. If it goes the other way, there's a chance of the memory of Bluebird being maintained a little, which I think would be nice.

Is there any money in it? Maybe. If I beat very long odds, the idea inventor gets a very small fraction of sales revenue. No idea how much that would end up being. The whole voting process can take a very long time in and of itself. So I'm doing it because Lego is about as far as my engineering "talents" run, but if I can pull it together it might be a nice model for the museum and yourselves at least. What do you think? Worth trying?

[ExcelsiorUK]

Sorry, I was attempting to underline the fact that I'm not actually thinking about money by addressing that up front. I just thought some people might be thinking "what's in it for him" so I was trying to be transparent about it. I'm actually thinking that given that there are a lot of engineers who are into Lego Ideas (judging by the popularity of certain types of sets there) then some publicity might even end up assisting you. I agree the odds of it getting made into a set are slim, but notwithstanding that I would be making the model available to those who want to build it for nothing in any event - see here for how that can be done: https://www.rebrickable.com/users/Excelsior/mocs/

[mtskull]

Lego K7? Been there, done that.

[Renegadenemo]

Seems Lego can charge £600 for a fantasy biscuit from space. It was the talk of the workshop for weeks so why not a Bluebird? Makes perfect sense to me...

[Richie]

Always makes me laugh... 600 smackers for a bag of plastic blocks.... I mean, come on, every kid can afford £600 for a space rusk ?!

Lego are absolute ripping *cough cough* at the best of times.


Toys for the elite I guess.

[Ste]

Want one! (I'm just too tight to pay that amount of money).

[Richie]

don't get me wrong, its awesome, but lets be honest, the average family is not going to be able to afford this for their child.

[ExcelsiorUK]

Nor indeed be able to store it anywhere. I've spent a great deal of time recently constructing Ikea furniture to house Lego and from the pictures I've seen that thing is massive.

[Richie]

A close pal of mine was a smoot OCD growing up, he would assemble the model, enjoy it for a short period then carefully dismantle it, place it in a clearly labelled walls ice cream tub along with its instructions, where upon it would be placed in his wardrobe with the other 200 or so similar boxes. I always respected Glen for his ability to keep good his toys.


meanwhile at Casa Richie, the model was built smashed or blown to bits with a banger then chucked into the large lego box where you would never find all the bits again.


I did keep the instructions for every model though, but in hindsight this must have been some cruel perverse ploy for some unwitting fool to want to find all the bits from the big chest of lego / matchbox cars / pens and pencils.

god I was awful as a kid !

[ExcelsiorUK]

I'd not seen this version of the K7 in Lego before but I thought you'd appreciate the attention to detail with the markings etc - I started looking at ways to do it last night and it's going to be a challenge which is why the models so far all have a degree of compromise. https://www.flickr.com/photos/fifthpixe ... 2680685254